Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) was a 16th-century Flemish painter, most famous for his depictions of the life of the common people or peasants. During his lifetime and even centuries later most people looked down upon Bruegel's art. Art critics felt it was nothing more than a vulgar depiction of everyday life without any actual esthetic merit. While many of his contemporaries painted pictures of royals, rich people and religious scenes Bruegel had attention for the lower and undervalued classes of society.

As Time Marches On, Bruegel's paintings and drawings have been Vindicated by History because of their historical importance. His art is almost like a documentary of 16th century everyday life. If it wasn't for Bruegel our knowledge about the ordinary people might have been Lost Forever. The man depicted their seasonal activities, feasts, work, proverbs, sayings, children's games,... and even minority groups like blind and crippled people.

Art historians have also revalued Bruegel as an artist. On first glance the peasants on his paintings seem to be ugly, almost caricatural depictions of primitive countryfolks. But actually everything has been painted with the greatest eye for realism and detail. Bruegel's landscapes and crowd scenes in particular always keep your attention and often overshadow the actual topic of the paintings. His work shows a universal love for nature and the simple country life without romanticizing it.

The art of Pieter Bruegel provides examples of:

The eponym "Bruegelian" is often used to describe scenes of medieval peasants eating, drinking and feasting.

Advertised Extra: Icarus in Landscape with the Fall of Icarus◊ is almost hidden. You can only see his leg sticking out of the water in the bottom right corner of the image. None of the other people in the painting seem to notice Icarus falling into the water; in fact, everybody minds his own business.

Anachronism Stew: Done intentionally for effect. While many of Brueghel's paintings depict events from The Bible or Classical Mythology, they take place in landscapes clearly defined by early modern reality, with characters dressed in clothing and carrying weapons from the 16th century. Brueghel thus represented his themes in a universal manner and made statements about the society he lived in. The fact that the central (biblical or classical) events are often easily overlooked in the huge landscapes only makes this effect stronger.

Alone in a Crowd: Lots of crowd scenes, while the actual subject of the painting is often just a lonely, almost overlooked detail.

As the Good Book Says: Like every painter in his time Bruegel painted a lot of biblical themes, though always taking place in his own lifetime: "The Massacre Of The Innocents", "The Tower of Babel", "The Fall of the Rebel Angels", "Saul", "Flight To Egypt",...

Big Eater: In "Peasant's Wedding" many peasants are enjoying large quantities of food.

Grotesque Gallery: Though not as grotesque as Hieronymus Bosch he portrayed peasants as quite crude, unflattering not always good looking people. The main difference is that his portrayals are still realistically believable and not fantasies. Thus you actually get to see these people as real peasants as they existed back then and not some romanticized vision.

Willy Vandersteen's Suske en Wiske comic strip albums "Het Spaanse Spook" and "De Krimson Crisis" feature a cameo by Bruegel. In "Het Spaanse Spook" the characters travel back in time by entering his painting "Peasant Wedding". Vandersteen's final comic strip series, "De Geuzen", actually took place in the 16th century and at the end of each story a reproduction of one of Bruegel's drawings was reprinted.

Flemish singer Wannes Van De Velde wrote two songs about Bruegel: "Pieter Breughel in Brussel" and "Café Breughel".

Humans Are Bastards: Bruegel was a moralizer. One painting summarizes this vision best. It shows an old man in black, whose money is stolen by a man inside a globe, symbolizing international evil. The text below the image says: Because the world is so unfair, I mourn in despair.

Literal Metaphor: His paintings of the "Netherlandish Proverbs", "The Blind Leading The Blind", "The Big Fish Eating The Small Fish", "The Peasant And The Nest Robber", "12 Proverbs", "The Magpie On The Gallows" which are all literal depictions of traditional proverbs and sayings.

Lost Forever: On his death bed Bruegel told his wife to destroy some of his drawings and paintings, because they could cause problems for her if the authorities discovered them. And she did.

Nature Lover: Like many other painters Bruegel also made a trip to Italy. Yet he was more interested in the landscapes than the glorious Renaissance art. This love is reflected in the beautiful idyllic backgrounds in most of his art, though they seldom were realistic.

Noble Savage: Partly subverted: Bruegel acknowledged their existence in his work when other artists mostly ignored peasants and ordinary people, but he didn't glamorize them either.

Pastiche: Bruegel's early works are stylistically similar to Hieronymus Bosch. The painting "De Dulle Griet" ("Mad Meg") is his most obvious pastiche of Bosch's art. People who see this painting for the first time often immediately assume that it's by Bosch.

The reason Bruegel as well as somewhat later Dutch artists painted a lot of winter scenes is because they lived during the Little Ice Age.

Riddle for the Ages: Some scenes are still a mystery to art historians, mostly because they are supposedly based on sayings of the day or allusions to certain people that have now fallen into obscurity.

Rule of Symbolism: Many of his works have symbolic and/or allegorical images. The Magpie on the Gallows, for instance, isn't just a naturalistic scene: it was based on a Flemish saying that indicated that people who spy and badmouth you will sent you to the gallows.

Scenery Gorn and Scenery Porn: The detailed backgrounds often have a more prominent and richly detailed presence than the people who walk through them. Yet even though most of them appear realistically, they were mostly thought up by Bruegel himself.

Seasonal Baggage: He made five paintings depicting people and landscapes during various seasons.

Secret Art: Certain scenes on Bruegel's paintings and drawings are veiled criticisms of the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands.

Shown Their Work: Some of Bruegel's paintings of blind people are so accurate that doctors are able to point out the type of blindness from which these people were suffering.

Slumming It: Bruegel is said to have disguised himself as a peasant while visiting the countryside. On Peasant Wedding the bearded man in black on the far right is said to be a self portrait.

Spell My Name with an "S": He signed his name "Brueghel" and/or "Bruegel" at different times in his life. His son's name is subject to the same variation. Spelling was not particularly formalised at that point in history. Other people have also spelled his name as "Breugel" and "Breughel".

Spiritual Successor: Bruegel's earlier works owe a lot in spirit or themes to the works of Hieronymus Bosch: "The Triumph of the Dead", "Mad Meg (Dulle Griet)", "The Seven Sins", "Fall of the Rebellious Angels", "The Big Fishes Eat the Smaller Fishes",...

Bruegel's work itself was copied constantly in the 16th and 17th century, mostly by his sons.

18th century Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer also depicted ordinary people in his work.

Bruegel was also an obvious influence on Belgian Comics. His paintings are full of thousands of little anecdotes happening amidst a crowd of not very flattering portrayals of common people. Almost like a modern day comic strip. In fact, Willy Vandersteen (of Suske en Wiske fame) was nicknamed "The Bruegel of The Comic Strip" by Hergé.

Story Within a Story: His paintings are so full of detail that you can view dozens of little anecdotical scenes taking place.

Status Quo Is God: "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" shows Icarus drowning as just a small detail of the painting, while the people around him just carry on with their lives as usual.

Toilet Humour: Bruegel's work was often downgraded in his lifetime for being nothing else but bawdy scenes full of ugly peasants. In some scenes on his paintings like the Netherlandish Proverbs and 12 Proverbs people can be seen urinating or defecating in the background.

Unintentional Period Piece: Bruegel was able to catch late medieval/early Renaissance society while it was happening. His work offers historians a unique glimpse in the living conditions of the ordinary people at that time about whom we don't know very much compared with the royals and aristocrats.

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